The fishing industry is emerging as an early European casualty of soaring diesel costs amid the Iran war, with at least half the Dutch fleet staying in port this week, according to industry representatives.
The pressure is most acute in the Netherlands because of an outsized number of beam trawlers in its fleet, which makes up about seven per cent of the European Union's total.
These ships target high-value North Sea flatfish such as sole, turbot and brill, but burn relatively large amounts of fuel. Industry group VisNed said 80 per cent to 90 per cent of such trawlers did not sail out this week.
Durk van Tuinen, a spokesperson for the Dutch Fishers Union, said weekly fuel bills that ran €12,000 to €13,000 ($13,800-$15,000) before the war started on February 28 are now heading towards €30,000, roughly equal to the total value of fish a vessel might bring at this time of the year, leaving no money to pay a crew.
“Now the fuel bill is equal to the revenue, so it simply does not work,” he said.
The Dutch may be hardest-hit, but they are not alone, said Daniel Voces, managing director of Europêche, the representative body for EU fishermen.
Belgium and Britain also use beam trawlers, and fleets targeting groundfish such as cod and haddock around Europe are near or at loss-making levels with current prices.
Voces said top fishing nations Spain, Italy and France had all introduced modest support measures, but with fuel costs up by around 70 per cent, some ships have been unwilling to put to sea.
He said the industry met with the EU fisheries chief, Costas Kadis, this week to ask the European Commission to again relax state aid rules for the industry - as it did during the energy crisis that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
According to Van Tuinen, the immediate impact on consumers will be tighter supply and higher prices. He noted the price of sole had already jumped to €18 at auction this week from roughly €12.
Faced with those costs, he said, restaurants might serve smaller portions to maintain their margins, but many others will simply stop buying.
"Fish will disappear from the menu," he predicted.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling, editing by Andrei Khalip)
